get you right now to the "newsroom"ry carol costello. >> a busy day. thank you, chris. have a great day, all of you. "newsroom," starts now. breaking right now -- outbreak. >> that is definitely a tornado. >> 75 million in the threat zone. >> no, no, no. no, no, no. >> stop. >> stop! >> southern states slammed. towns wiped out. >> oh, jesus. cars that have been tossed. sterling sponsors pull out. >> we want to see this guy out of the league now. >> big american companies dropping the clippers. state farm, car max, sprint. for the first time, audio recordings from the missing plane played for the families. >> i'm here to represent hundreds of family members from malaysia 370. >> as the families confront the

planemaker. >> they don't want your sympathy. what they want is answers to their questions. >> you're live in the "cnn newsroom." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you for joining me. right now 75 million americans find themselves in the path of a storm system that is both sprawling and deadly. >> oh, jesus. there's cars that have been tossed. >> the violent weather first erupted yesterday killing at least 29 people in six states. weather experts had warned of the growing threat for days, but the ferocity erupted with shocking speed. this alabama fire station torn apart as the rig sat parked. and a meteorologist in tupelo, mississippi, pleaded with viewers to take cover until the approaching threat forced him to follow his own advice.

>> this is a tornado ripping through the city of tupelo as we speak. and -- this could be -- deadly. let's go tower cam. basement, now. let's go. let's go. now. >> frightening situation. cnn has dispatch reporters across the southeast. meteorologists indra petersons is in our weather center tracking the storm. we begin our coverage with hard-hit mississippi where at least eight people have died in the violent weather, and today the city of tupelo was grappling with widespread devastation. let's check in with tupelo's mayor jason sheldon. good morning, mr. mayor. >> thank you very much. carol, it's certainly a tragic day here. we're trying to assess the damage and just find out where we go from here. >> your governor in mississippi said he lived through katrina

but nerve her seen anything like the size and destructiveness of these tornadoes. are they unlike anything you've ever seen? >> well, i don't know that the state has seen anything this widespread. three years ago almost to the day is the deadly tornado outbreak that had a line of destruction from mississippi to alabama, but the storm system yesterday was literally about half of the state of mississippi. governor bryant and his staff have been excellent in reaching out to us. he's personally called me numerous times, and i understand it he's on his way to tupelo now to help survey and assess the damage and formulate rebuilding here in tupelo, mississippi. >> you've been sharing so many amazing stories. like the one about that business that was completely leveled, except for the bathroom. can you share that with us? >> well, again, that's directly across the street from where we're at now. the employees and patrons of the

business huddled in the bathroom facility while the building literally crumbled around them. also, i heard in the intro the discussion on our local meteorologist. i think their action literally saved lives in the city of tupelo and are certainly grateful to them and the local and national media for the advance warning of the storm system. we were able to do a 10:00 a.m. wa walkthrough of our protocol because of that warning. >> thank you for that. we really appreciate that. you mentioned rebuilding, but first you have to kind of assess the extent of the damage. any guesses? >> yes, ma'am. first and foremost is obviously the human factor. we're still trying to verify that there are no casualties in the city of tupelo. the emergency responders have done two door-to-door searches and they're going to do another one today. then, or currently as we speak, our department heads are in

every part of the city assessing the damage and then we're going to -- our chief operating officer is meeting with mississippi emergency management now. then we're all going to convene at 8:30 and then our chief operating officer and i will meet with the governor shortly after 9:00. >> are you getting everything that you need? >> so far, there's not been anything that we've requested that has not been delivered. that's from the state and federal agencies, we have partnership agreements with other counties and municipalities, and everybody has just been all hands on deck to help us. the whole northern half of the state was really hit hard, and everyone is just pulling together and sharing resources. it's more important to get the job done than who does it or gets credit for it. >> mayor jason shelton, thanks for taking thetime. we appreciate it. >> thank you, carol. right now alabama is under a

state of emergency. at least three people were killed there after tornadoes ripped through that state. 100 miles north of birmingham the storm devastated the town of athens, in the bull's eye of the storm where cnn's brian todd is this morning. good morning, brian. >> reporter: good morning, carol. as the sun has come up here just west of athens, people are just starting to arrive in this neighborhood and pick through the rubble and see what they've lost. and it is devastating. the tornado just slammed through this neighborhood. this is formerly a complex of houses and duplex apartments and then look what's left of it. complete devastation behind me. officials had told people that were in manufactured housing, lighter materials, to get out. most seem to have heeded the warnings. as this neighborhood will show you, even if you had a house with solid framings and solid structure and some foundation it didn't matter. this house seems to be of that quality and it just got blown off its foundation. there are appliances strewn all over the place here and people

are not quite out of danger yet. officials are warning last night the police chief of athens told me, people coming back to these areas have to be very careful, because there are downed power lines around. there are gas leaks still around in places like this. so even when you're coming back to pick through the rubble of your home, as devastating and heartbreaking at that is, you've got to be very careful. two people killed in a trailer park not far from here, carol, but today as the people here assess the damage, they're also going to take more of an accurate counting of the dead and injured in this region. >> brian todd reporting live this morning. it's not over yet either. 75 million people still in the cross hairs of severe weather today. cnn's indra petersons is live in new york to tell us when it's going to stop. good morning. >> the biggest concern, still talking about an enhanced, moderate risk, where you see the red, still out there again today. the focus around birmingham and north of mobile. as we mentioned, this is an expansive area with a slight

risk today. another 73 million people today looking for a slight risk. remember a slight risk does not mean you cannot still have a very strong tornado. that risk is still there for major cities, virginia, cleveland, charlotte, even tallahassee eveb bln going thro the afternoon. still a tornado watch box in panama city. watching this convective nature intensify through the morning. left the sun in there. talking about this day after day. see the low sitting off the coast in the northeast? this guy is parked here bringing rain to the northeast. since it's parked there it is blocking the system behind it from bringing in, or moving farther to the east. here it is again. that cold front. all the moisture coming off the southeast. all of this blows up you can see going through the afternoon. that's the concern as we go through the day again today. then through tomorrow, such a slow-moving system. we're still looking at a severe weather threat. including d.c. now. all the way back through jacksonville. tomorrow, keep in mind, although the system itself is moving very

slow, the tornadoes, when they spawn, are not moving slow. moving as fast as 50, 60 miles per hour. you don't have time. and when you hear the warnings, of course, take cover. >> indra petersons, thanks so much. check out cnn.com/impact, a list of organizations helping out with relief are and recovery. now to the latest on a shooting at a fedex facility in suburban atlanta. police say the shooting suspect is dead. he died apparently by his own hand. six people injured at that facility in kennesaw, georgia. all taken to a local hospital. one of them listed in critical condition. david mattingly is on the phone with more on the situation. do we know who the shooter is, david? >> reporter: not at this point, carol. that confirmation just coming through just in the last couple of minutes, that the shooter in this case was deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. that um canning from the cobb county police department. this area, kennesaw, georgia, is

about 20, 25 miles north of atlanta. it is a suburb of atlanta. the original call came in about 6:00 this morning calling authorities there with reports of an active shooter at this workplace. a fedex distribution facility. a short time ago they told us that they had secured the area around the facility, and that they were working to clear the facility itself, and now this confirmation that the shooter has, in fact, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. authorities also confirming that six people were injured in this shooting. the hospital telling us that at least one of those six was able to walk into the hospital. one of them was in surgery and police now also telling us that one person is in critical condition from this shooting at a fedex distribution facility in kennesaw, georgia. but at this point, no further information about the investigation, about who the shooter is, what the motive might have been here, and any

other details of what was going on. but, again, this call came in about three hours ago and now the shooter is dead. six people in the hospital. one of them critical. >> all right. david mattingly reporting live from kennesaw, georgia, this morning. still to come in the "newsroom," a private company thinks its found wreckage from flight 370, but nowhere near where searchers are looking. cnn will ripley is following this latest development. hi, will. >> reporter: hey, carol. as the search off western australia enters a new phase now this us a italian company says they may have data showing searchers have been looking in the wrong place. [ laughter ]

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it's been an emotional day for the families of passengers aboard flight 370 after weeks of pleading with malaysian officials to release more information about that vanished jet, they're finally getting some answers. just hours ago at a news conference in beijing, for the first time, those families heard what's believed to be the very last conversation between the cockpit and ground control. the families heard the recording over a public address system.

you can hear crying in the background. some families so overcome they collapsed. malaysian officials also released flight 370's black box serial numbers and the last known contacts it made with radar stations and a satellite orbiting the indian ocean. also this morning, there's a possible new lead in the search for that plane. an australian says it discovered what could be wreckage in the bay of bengal. that's thousands of miles north of the current search area in the indian ocean. now, the president of that

australian company, georesonance, tells cnn his company reached that conclusion using technology designed to find nuclear warheads under the ocean. he explained how that technology works. >> technology was originally created to search for nuclear biological chemical weaponry under the ocean andeneder the earth in bunkers and so on, and what we do is, we start the nuclei and we knew we had the tools to search for the plane, but we started searching on the 12th. we got images which were a mixture of satellite and images from airplanes taken, multispeck true images, not actually visual images. a bit more fphontific than that.

we ended up on the top of the bay of bengal, and as we searched all of those areas, we were looking for aluminum, which makes up 70% of a boeing 777, and if we got a hit or a reading for aluminum, then we moved on to the next metal which was titanium and steel and copper and nickel and chromium and steel iron, others but the main ones we looked for. >> also tells cnn why it's more likely it's in the northern arc versus the southern arc. >> in the southern area doesn't seem logical to us at all. the pings coming from the, from the satellite, it's basically a 50/50 chance that it was heading on the northern corridor, or the southern corridor.

as it turned out we found out afterwards, but we still say we could be right. i'm not saying we actually have found mh-370. we have found what we think, and believe, should be investigated. >> the partner of one passenger on flight 370 tells cnn she's open to this new possibility. >> i have a fairly sensitive vf meter at this point and this gentleman sounded credible to me. i do believe it's worth sending a boat out with proper sonar capabilities. the water's only 1,000 meters deep in that area and they have gps coordinates where to go. we would like to see the government follow-up on this. it seems valid. >> those are the images underneath the water of some kind of object, and you can see that they mimic a plane, but we just don't know. so will they check it out? searchers check it out? bring in will ripley in kuala

lumpur, malaysia. will they check it out or ignore it? >> reporter: it's interesting, carol, you pointed out, we need to treat this with a healthy dose of skepticism. keep in mind, over the last weeks we've had so many false leads in this case. i think about the satellite images in the southern indian ocean we were so sure, people were so sure was a debris field at one point and it turned out not to be. searchers detected four pings in this area, this high probability area they're still searching off western australia. so far that search has turned up nothing. now a new company that used a different technology four days after 370 disappeared and used that technology to pinpoint this area where they think these metals and other traces of components that would make up a boeing 777 exist, and they say they weren't there before 370 disappeared, and they are there now. this is what is interesting, carol. supposedly, this company, if what they say is correct, they sent out a notice of this in late march and again in early april. weeks before the batteries on

those black boxes would have expired. and they claim that the only reason they're coming forward now, nearly eight weeks into the search, is because they essentially feel they were ignored, and the reaction we got from malaysia, here in malaysia, versus the response in australia were two very different responses. the acting transport minister says they'd work with international partners to verify this inferring, whereas command center we believe according to the satellite data mh-370 is in the southern arc and this bay of bengal certainly in not there, 3,100 miles north. they believe it is resting in the indian ocean? the area they're searching. what happens now is anyone's guess, carol, but is certainly now another option, another theory out there adding to list of theories we've seen in this mystery. >> will ripley reporting live from kuala lumpur this morning. thank you. still to come in the "newsroom," decision on donald sterling, the nba makes an

announcement today about the l.a. clippers owner. dan simon is at the staples center. good morning, dan. >> reporter: good morning, carol. warriors/clippers tonight. the first time that we've seen a home game since the controversy began swirling over the owner. we'll have a live report coming up. most of the time people are shocked when we show them where they're getting the acid, and what those acids can do to the enamel. there's only so much enamel on a tooth, and everybody needs to do something about it now if they want to preserve their teeth. i recommend pronamel because it helps strengthen the tooth and makes it more resistant to acid breakdown. we want to be healthy and strong through the course of our life, and by using pronamel every day, just simply using it as your toothpaste, you know you will have that peace of mind.

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nba players are asking for a speedy resolution surrounding the donald sterling mess and now may get it. commissioner adam silver that a 2:00 p.m. eastern news conference to talk about the investigation involving the l.a. clippers owner.

audiotapes of a racist rant attributed to sterling were released over it's weekend leading to players silent protest, talks of boycotts and players jumping ship all while the playoffs are going on. dan simon is outside staples center. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carol. the clippers set to take the floor tonight. the question, how will both the players and fans react? some suggested the fans even stay at home as a way to protest that as the pressure on owner donald sterling is mounting. >> mr. sterling -- >> reporter: donald sterling seen leaving a restaurant with his wife just hours after she publicly distanced herself from those racist comments reportedly made by her husband to his girlfriend, v. stiviano. >> if you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. you have to? >> reporter: here, mrs. sterling seems to defend him when asked if he's a racist. >> are you a racist, mr. sterling? >> no. of course not. >> people want to know, mr.

sterling. >> reporter: the shocking audio of an nba owner disparaging african-americans continued to ricochet with a steady stream of corporate sponsors withdrawing support for the clippers. state farm, mercedes-benz, red bull, virgin america to make a few. >> there is a personal, economic and social price that mr. sterling must pay for his attempt to burn taurn back the race relations. >> reporter: so far sterling and the woman at the center of it all, girlfriend v. stiviano, remained quiet since the tape first surfaced on tmz sports. that's her getting into a waiting bentley. both nba stars and fans alike continue to soundoff. >> there's a man in a powerful position, and a man who should be embracing minorities, not discriminating against them. >> reporter: all of this against the backdrop of a basketball game, and a clippers coach trying to keep his players focused on the playoffs. >> these last 48 hours or more have been -- been really hard

for our players and for everyone, and i would just like to reiterate how disappointed i am, and how upset i am, our players are. >> reporter: and clippers coach doc rivers said he had the chance to speak with donald sterling, but he declined. how is the nba going to address this awful situation? perhaps we know more after the news conference later today in new york. back to you. >> dan simon reporting live this morning. thank you. as dan said, the nba decision regarding don sterling will come down at 2:00 p.m. today. you can watch it live on cnn. and knicks season ticket holder spike lee is comparing sterling to a slave master and says the clippers owner must be removed from the team. he spoke exclusively with anderson cooper. >> tomorrow's a big day. the commissioner, the new

commissioner, adam silver, having a press conference here in new york at 2:00 p.m. i'm going to be there. >> you're going to go to it? >> i'm going to go to it and a whole lot of people. >> you know this new commissioner? >> i've known adam a long time. a lawyer for david stern. he's a good guy. >> what do you think he should do? >> i don't know they have -- i don't know the bylaws of the league, but he has to go. >> this guy, donald sterling, should not own a team? >> he's got to go. because he's tainted all the other 29 partners. he's tainting the league and he's tainting america. and when you hear something like that, that is the mentality of a slave master. he sees his players as slaves. >> he feeds them. he -- >> yes. what is that? >> he works them. >> and then i want to say -- i want to say what magic said. not just magic. people say, doesn't he know all of his players are black?

yeah, he knows that. masters know that, too, when we were out there in the cotton fields and whatnot, would go. so had he has to go and i would like to see even though the league is 75% african-american, i think this is -- outside fr from -- i this -- i ven heard from white players. >> you think -- >> everyone. if you are someone who believes in humanity, justice for all, whether based on race, sex, whatever, this is a front to everybody. we all should be outraged as americans. >> former nba player and knicks executive larry johnson is looking beyond the sterling controversy actually calling for an all-african-american league.

>> we should be focusing on having our own league. >> we'll talk about that in the next hour of "newsroom." still to come, deadly weather explodes across the south and tens of millions of americans are at risk. meteorologist chad myers in tupelo this morning. hi, chad. >> reporter: hi, carol. here comes the sun. that's not a good thing. more storms today in this heat. forecast, after this. at od, whatever business you're in, that's the business we're in.

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good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you for joining me. time to check top stories at 35 past the hour. wall street. the big board, bell rang about five minutes ago. dow up about 78 points. investors looked to end the month on a positive note. a good thing. president obama's approval rating is not a good thing. it has fall ton a new low according to the latest poll, 41% approve of the job he's doing at president while more than 50% disapprove. >> this is a large, violent tornado. there is all sorts of stuff falling out of the sky. >> a sprawling and fearsome storm system breaking across the south putting in 75 million americans at risk of severe weather. a string of tornadoes erupted

yesterday killing 29 people across six states. weather experts warned of the threat for days, and struggled to keep abreast of the tornadoes as they roared to life. >> this is a tornado ripping through the city of tupelo as we speak. and this could be deadly. let's go tower cam. there's a damaging tornado. on the ground. right now. >> okay. that young meteorologist had to leave the building himself. the tupelo mayor told me he did a fantastic job in warning people to take cover. let's head out to cnn meteorologist chad myers. good morning, chad. >> reporter: good morning, carol. been a long night here in tupelo for many of the residents here. now, the images i'm going to show you, not representative of the entire town. so if you can't get ahold of someone you love in tupelo, they're likely okay. this is 5% of the city, but look

at this, carol. this was a gas station. people were getting fuel here when this happened. you can see right inside. they're trying to salvage what's inside. obviously right here, they already have the bulldozers ready to go. they're going to knock this whole place down. there will be nothing left here. look at that car right there. this is why we tell you, if there's a big tornado, there might not be a good place in your car, because look at that piece of metal. right straight through. then the rest of his debris, all the way from, as far as i can see, from north to south to east to west, probably half a mile wide, slightly, slightly less intense than the storm i was in yesterday, which was the mayflower tornado somewhere maybe 160, 155 per hour. here maybe 140, because as we look at the trees they're not devastated quite as much as they were yesterday. there's still a couple of trees with leaves on them. yesterday, the trees were bare. the bark was gone. ripped off.

that means that the violent tornado yesterday, and this one, although violent if it's right where you are, doesn't stack up to that storm yet, from what i've seen. we'll do more of a storm report and look at neighborhoods. only six injuries that had to stay in the hospital overnight, according to the mayor's report. >> you've covered national disasters. it's resilient to see those who endured such big losses, such in property. viewers look at the scene you came across. a flas-raig-raising amid the ru of what was once a home. touching image. tell us about that. >> valonia, and mayflower, the first thing people want to do to show they're americans, they're not giving up, showing this isn't the last day of their life. they want to raise a flag saying, we are here. we're coming back. this is what we stand for, and the one we saw, the flag-raising

we saw in mayflower, it was at least 20 people that didn't even know the owner of the home. not even friends helping friends. random people helping people, because that's what america and middle america is all about, when you get this type of weather, and you get this type of damp that people that don't get damaged come out to help the people that do. >> thanks for sharing, chad. we appreciate it. >> reporter: i'll see you tomorrow from a different location in alabama. there will be more tornadoes today. >> thanks, chad. we'll get back to you. still to come in the "newsroom," sponsors start to bail on the los angeles clippers as the owner finds himself in the middle of a racial firestorm. christine romans following that side of the story. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carol. 12 teams and counting, or 12 companies and counting have dropped their, or suspended their sponsorship of this team. what will be the financial cost for donald sterling? i'll have that for you, right after the break. four-wheel steering is why i get up in the morning.

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while the nba will announce its punishment for clippers owner donald sterling later this afternoon, some of the team's biggest sponsors not waiting, cutting ties with the team after its owner was accused of making racist comments. christine romans joins me. >> so interesting about so many of these companies dropping or suspending their sponsorship of this team, they are at pains to say they support these players. it's the language, the reported language of the team owner that has them stepping back. unacceptable. offensive. represent prehenceable. >> we want to see this guy out of the league now. >> reporter: and now, corporate america joining the backlash against los angeles clippers owner donald sterling in the wake of his alleged racist comments. while players protested publicly

over the weekend, sponsors began the week releasing carefully worded statements, pledging support for players and fans, but distancing themselves from sterling. take state farm, for example. the insurer says it's taking a "pause in its relationship with the organization." but the company stressed it will continue to run television ads featuring clippers star chris paul. same for the energy drink maker red bull. the company is suspending all team-related marketing activities but plans on continuing its relationship with the high-flying break griffin. other companies, car max, virgin america, mercedes-benz and kia are all dropping the clippers as well. ford estimates sterli forbe estimates his value, and the clippers revenue $1.9 million, putting them in the middle of an exclusive pack. so what happens next? sacramento mayor kevin johnson is a former nba star, and the chairman of the national basketball players association's

executive search committee. >> certainly when you talk about things like boycott and protesting and economic sanctions, were e don't want to take any off the table. >> reporter: experts say more corporate spawners will drop the clippers. even so, the nba's problem with sterling goes far beyond money. >> i don't think he belongs in this environment. given the way he feels about 80% of the players in the league. >> reporter: carol what sponsors do next really depends on what happens at 2:00 p.m. eastern when we will hear from the nba officially on what it plans to do, what kind of sanctions, if any, they will have again this owner and then you could see some of the spawners coming back in. only a couple said they definitively ended their relationship. others said they suspended it. >> kristichristine, sponsor are thing. tv deals another. isn't that where the nba or team owners make most of their money? >> reporter: this is a team that's seen its tv ratings jump

55%. it is i think, the 13th biggest, or most valuable franchise, but it is the fifth biggest audience in the nba. that -- that is a really important part of this question bp so will next year, will the team suffer next year if the deals written today for next year's sponsorship to tv deals, this controversy bleeds into next year, that's what we just don't know yet. >> christine romans reporting live for us this morning. thank you. still to come in the "newsroom," luxurious lives, the palace filled with gold. now the united states and britain are teaming up to help ukraine make sure they recover all the spoils of corruption. that's coming your way, next.

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funny, there was no mention of hail in the weather report. go & smell the roses! a day after the united states issues more sanctions against russia, an investigation into corruption gets under way. the opulent home filled with suits of armor. there was a golf course on the outside. dozens of antique cars and a massive riverboat and more. >> reporter: when ukraine comes to terms with the troubled economy and asks where did all of the money go? here is part of the answer. the president's own vodka.

>> today the u.s. attorney general will participate in a forum in britain to help identify, trace and recover proceeds of corruption stolen by the former ukrainian regime. an interesting exercise since the guy who used to live in that palace is now protected in russia. matthew chance joins us from washington. what are the russians saying about this? >> reporter: there's been no official reaction of course to this. you're right the ousted former president of ukraine does indeed live somewhere in the moscow region. you know what? i think many russians see this exercise, however valiant it is, as being something of double standards. yes, okay. it may be worthy to look for the stolen assets of this regime but will the shortcomings or

corruption of previous ukrainian administrations will they also be investigated? many russians feel this is a double standard. it is a worthy enterprise. the prosecute general of ukraine says already he's located $3 billion worth of stolen assets. this forum taking place in london at the moment is going to take a long time. it's a two-day forum but it will take years to find the other missing millions and the missing billions. what organizers say is it is going to send a strong message that people who carry out this corruption or engage in it cannot enjoy impunity from investigations. that's the basis for is. >> the russians released a statement today on the new american and eu sanctions saying the sanctions just open the door for neo-nazis to continue their reign of terror in ukraine. seriously, does anyone believe

neo-nazis are to blame for what's happening in eastern ukraine? >> reporter: i think the russians have created a narrative in which they say that they are a significant proportion of the pro-ukrainian unity protesters and elements inside ukraine. inside the ukrainian government itself. that's the narrative that they they're keeping to and sticking to. i wouldn't say so much they are upping the ante. this is a response to the ante that's been upped by the europeans and americans in introducing more sanctions against russian individuals and companies. today the europeans announced 15 targets for their latest sanctions. all of them individuals from the military and political elite associated with separatism in eastern ukraine and in crimea.

there are associates around the president vladimir putin. foremost amongst them the chairman of the russian oil company, the biggest oil company in russia. a close putin associate. old kgb officer himself. he worked for many years with vladimir putin. the u.s. trying to send a strong message that it is vladimir putin's inner circle that they're trying to target with their sanctions. >> matthew chance reporting live from moscow this morning. thank you. still to come in the "newsroom," tension it is rising in the korean peninsula as the north conducts live fire drills and now there are concerns that pyongyang is poised for yet another nuclear test.

north korea is again ratcheting up tensions in the border wisouth korea. pyongyang notified seoul ahead of the exercises and south korea warned it would return fire if any shells landed in their territory. there is suspicion the north is poised for another nuclear test. >> reporter: another day of high tensions on the korean peninsula. north korea firing some 50 artillery shells into its own waters in the west sea close to the disputed maritime border between the two koreas. south korea responding by putting all arms of its military on high alert. it didn't reach the same stage as the last live firing exercise by north korea last month, which saw north korean shells dropping into south korean territory and the south koreans responding with live fire of their own.

it does undermine the continued provocative actions being taken by north korea in the wake of the visit by the u.s. president, barack obama, to seoul just last week. this disputed maritime area remains a flash point in relations between the two koreas. four years ago a south korean naval vessel sunk in the area. the south koreans claimed it was through north korea action although the north koreans have denied that. also in the same area, an island was shelled four years ago killing several residents so tensi tensions remain high in seoul. >> the next hour of "cnn newsroom" starts now. breaking right now. outbreak. >> that's definitely a tornado.

>> 75 million in the threat zone. >> no, no, no. >> stop. stop. >> southern states slammed. towns wiped out. >> cars have been tossed. sterling sponsors pull out. >> we want to see this guy out of the league now. >> big american companies dropping the clippers. state farm, carmax, sprint. for the first time audio recordings from the missing plane played for the families. >> i'm here to represent hundreds of family members from malaysia 370. >> as the families confront the playmaker. >> they don't want your sympathy. what they want is answers to their questions. >> your live in the "cnn newsroom." good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. the heat is being turned up on

l.a. clippers owner donald sterling. life has really changed for sterling and his girlfriend, v. stiviano. they are trying to duck the cameras after audiotapes surfaced of sterling going on a racist rant. the nba announcing details of its investigation in just a few hours 2:00 p.m. eastern. rachel nichols joins us now with a preview of that. what do you think the nba will say? >> reporter: the new commissioner can fine donald sterling and trust me, he will. keep in mind that donald sterling is worth about $1.9 billion. so even a few million in fines will not impact him. silver can suspend him. maybe even for a few years. maybe even indefinitely. just completely removing him from the team's operation permanently and there is certainly a push around nba circles that donald sterling never have any direct involvement with the clippers

again, never seen sitting courtside again. it's unlikely we could see silver go further and actually attempt to force sterling to sell the team as popular as a notion as that might be. it's possible that he might try to do that but to do that he would need the support of at least three-quarters of the other owners and frankly it's hard to see that happening. none of these guys would want silver to turn around and want to take their franchise away. the orlando magic owner has made controversial anti-gay statements in the past. i don't see him supporting taking a franchise away because someone has a hateful or on popular view and. mark cuban said yesterday he's worried about "the slippery slope of giving silver too much power here." we know that adam silver is outraged and we know the owners he works for are largely sayi i that they support drastic action. it will be interesting at 2:00 to find out how drastic we're

really talking about. >> i'm just thinking about what you said about the owners. what mr. sterling said was so over the top. so hateful. i can't imagine them not coming forward and not wanting him to be part of the nba. >> reporter: certainly not only from a moral perspective, you would hope that and expect that. from a business perspective, the clippers have been losing sponsors right and left. if the nba doesn't act strongly enough today, you have to think the nba as a whole may start losing sponsors right and left. it's going to be a balancing act. you also have to remember the legal factor in all of this. the nba constitution is secret. enough of it has leaked out over the years that we know that there are some broad clauses that silver can use. the best interest of the game. that sort of thing. if he goes too far, if owners as a group go too far, they hope themselves up to having this tied up in court for years with donald sterling who is a lawyer himself who is known to be very

litigious. the state of the clippers would be in flux for years. you would probably see most people around the clippers quit. their coach doc rivers said as much yesterday. he said, look, i don't know if i want to be part of this organization anymore. you can see players try to get out of their contracts. it would be an absolute disaster and they would lose a foot hold in one of the biggest marketplaces in the country. it's a mess on all sides. it's a legal mess. it's certainly a moral mess and it may be a business mess as well if they don't fix it today and of course they've got all eyes upon them. the entire country, the president of the united states has commented on this. lebron james has said that he has confidence for now in adam silver. president obama said the same thing. adam silver better deliver this afternoon. >> we'll be watching and waiting. rachel nichols reporting live for us. thank you so much. joining me now nba tv analyst and radio host jerry stackhouse. thank you so much for being here. you heard rachel's report.

what goes through your mind when you hear this stuff? >> as much as we want him to have him out of the league and not have him be an owner anymore, i don't know there are grounds to have him removed. we've been a progressive league forever. we've had minorities in high positions. this is definitely not a view of our league or our players as a whole. this is just one individual. i think he's an owner and adam silver works for him. at the end of the day i can't see him helping to construct a blueprint to allow him to be put out of his ownership. >> the thing is that people are so angry about this. the rhetoric is heating up. spike lee sat down with anderson cooper last night. listen to what he said about the situation. >> he's tainted all of the other 29 partners. he's tainting the league and he's tainting america. we hear something like that. that's the mentality of a slave

master. >> so when you have rhetoric like that going on, that puts even more pressure on mr. silver, right? >> i think that we have come a long way in a short amount of time. >> do you agree with spike lee? i should have asked you that first. >> i do think that he has a slave owners mentality. i'm not sure he's the only one. if you look across all of the board, he's been allowed to operate in this space for a long time. it's hard to fathom that he's the only one that may have these type of views and i think the way that his message was obtained, you know illegally, i don't know if he has the grounds to really pursue it and push him out of the ownership position. >> you heard rachel say if two-thirds of the owners come together and they want him out, he'll be out. shouldn't they come forward? this is over the top. >> absolutely. you can see the negative effect that they're having. you have sponsorships pulling out and at the end of the day

it's a business and with owners it's their bottom line and they all participate in revenue sharing. all of these sponsorships that are leaving the clippers is ultimately affecting the other teams as well. absolutely i think if it comes to push and shove, they'll have him out of there for sure if they can. >> if the commissioner comes out and he doesn't issue severe enough penalties for mr. sterling, what might the players do. this is all affecting them. they have to play now in this environment. >> it's our problem as the nba, as nba players. it's definitely our problem. at the end of the day, it's really the owner situation right now and adam's situation to deal with and for us to look to see how he handles it. he can only do one of two things, pat him on the back for making a great decision and suspending him and using those broad powers we don't totally understand, or we can say this is not enough and say that more needs to be done or take some

more measures. >> i'm going to lay something else by you that's out there right now. former player and current new york knick executive larry johnson sent out a tweet. in essence he said that we should establish an all black league. that's the answer. >> we don't want separation. we want inclusion. we've become a global league. have to give david stern and adam silver, we created a global product that many people are proud of and it's unfortunate that this one vile incident and this vile person has to taint it at an important time for us during our playoffs. it's been one of the most exciting playoffs in quite a while that we have to deal with this. hopefully we push this along. i hope fans come out and support players. i know they don't want to support sterling. come out and support the players

and our game. at the end of the day, that's what should matter. >> jerry stackhouse, thank you so much. appreciate you being here. >> nba commissioner adam silver will make a statement regarding the league's action on donald sterling this afternoon. cnn will bring you those remarks live beginning at 2:00 p.m. eastern. still to come in the "newsroom," deadly storms rake the south and the worse may be yet to come. we'll look at a ferocious weather threat taking aim at 75 million americans. jeff... hey, scott! this is no time for lollygaggin', lad. the chickweed and the dandelions are wreakin' mad havoc! now's the time to send in the scotts turf builder weed & feed, man! it kills weeds while it feeds and strengthens your grass. feed your lawn. feed it!

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storm system that is both sprawling and deadly. >> cars have been tossed. >> the violent weather first erupted yesterday killing at least 29 people in six states. let's begin our coverage in hard hit mississippi where at least eight people have died as a result of the violent weather. that's where cnn meteorologist chad myers is this morning. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carol. think of mississippi that just got raked yesterday. a 500-mile wide rake and every time you put a time down on that rake and you pulled it eastward into alabama, that's the damage. every 50 miles or so there was a significant supercell. a big storm that was rotating. each of those rotating storms put down a tornado and then moved off to the east. we're going to have another violent day again today. you can hear the power of this massive cloud churning just

outside of tupelo, mississippi, on monday. it's just one of a string of tornadoes that barreled through the southeast with tupelo hit hard. the threat forcing a local meteorologist to take cover mid broadcast. >> basement now. >> let's go. >> the sheer force of the winds estimated at more than 100 miles per hour hoisted cars several feet off the ground and toppled power lines and reduced homes to rubble. residents struggled to pick up the pieces. severe weather spawned more than a dozen tornadoes that left close to 30 dead across six states since monday. in lewisville, mississippi -- >> my god. no. no. >> another twister reportedly as large as a mile wide and just look at this field. littered with tossed cars. and in alabama, about 42,000 are waking up without power with

severe thunderstorms battering the state into the night. a tornado in kimberly being blamed for ripping the roof and siding from this church. carol, it's sunny outside right now. that's actually a bad thing because it's heating up. that hot air down at the surface will want to rise like a hot air balloon. rising air makes clouds. clouds get bigger. the more sun we get, the more severe the storms will be this afternoon. we're breaking down and moving to alabama. if you are between northwestern alabama all of the way into georgia or all of the way down to the gulf coast and as far north as into the midwest, we'll see more big storms today and big tornadoes are again possible in this heat of the day. three days now in a row, carol. >> chad myers reporting live this morning. thanks so much. still to come in the "newsroom," pleading with malaysian

officials for 50 days now. families of flight 370 finally are getting some of the information they have been demanding about that missing jet. we'll let you know what it is next. [ male announcer ] this is kevin. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap.

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it was an emotional day for families in beijing. for the first time they heard the captain's last words before flight 370 disappeared. malaysian authorities after 53 days released the radio chatter between the plane and ground control. the families heard the recording

over a public address system. here it is. >> that was the last transition. steve wang whose mother was on the flight is the spokesperson for the families. welcome, steve. >> hello. >> what was it like to hear

that? >> well, you know, it's not too much in the record i heard. finally they gave it to us. it's a good beginning. we want them to keep on giving us more. >> how did the families react to hearing those words over that public address system? they never translated into chinese so some of the relatives do not understand what is in it. we are asking for the recording without anything added. just give us the full copy for the record and after that we'll verify and compare with the text message they gave us before and to check whether it is correct or not. >> it's taken them 53 days to

release this little bit of audiotape. are you surprised they released anything at all at this point? >> yeah. i have to say that it is a little bit late and it should not take so long but it's not a time for blaming. we're concentrating not only on malaysian airlines and malaysian government but also next of kin and we'll concentrate to find the plane. it's not the time to blame. we'll just keep on going with more investigation and we want them to supply more information so that we can organize a tactical team and just do what we can to help find the plane. >> in australia, they now suspended the aerial search for any kind of debris there might be. they are conducting underwater searches. are you satisfied with that?

>> a little bit. more than 50 days have passed, some debris is down into the water but there may be something still in the water. i think they should keep on searching. based on calculations, they could find a place where debris could be if they be confirmed about where the plane was. >> steve wang, thank you so much for talking with me. i appreciate it. a little bit more about what steve was talking about. there is a possible new lead in the search for flight 370. an australian company says it discovered what could be wreckage about 118 miles south of bangladesh in the bay of bangal thousands of miles north of the current search area.

the president of that australian company says his company reached that conclusion by using technology designed to find nuclear warheads under the ocean. david pope told cnn he decided to go public after his team in charge of the multinational search dismissed his claims. >> when we started looking on the 12th, four days after the plane disappeared. >> you were looking on the 12th? >> the search hadn't moved south of that stage and so we were looking where everyone else was looking and the most logical area to look as well. the southern area doesn't seem logical to us at all. the pings coming from the satellite is a 50-50 chance that it was hitting on the northern corridor or southern corridor as we found out yesterday but we still say we could be right.

we're not saying we have actually found mh370. we have found what we think should be investigated. >> you pass along this information. as i can see from your press release. you passed it along twice. you passed along the report on march 31st and again on april 4th. what response have you gotten from malaysian and australian authorities because today australian officials essentially appear to be dismissing the report when they are satisfied the final resting space of the missing aircraft is in the southern part of the search arc. >> they may very well be right. we still think that we found is a wreckage of an aircraft and someone should actually look into it. we have double-checked their work and a final report was sent to all of the agencies on the 15th of april. was sent two weeks ago

yesterday. and we have double-checked all of their findings and we had a total of 23 scientists looking at the project, so we're very, very positive that we found something. it may be down south but we found something up north. >> so mr. pope, what is the response from the australians and malaysians? have they said they'll look into it? >> the malaysians, the response has been excellent today. >> so let's talk about this with cnn safety analysts. welcome to you both. >> good morning. >> hello. >> who wants to start? rob, i'm going to start with you. so this company said they detected titanium, aluminalumin copper and steel alloys in the water. this makes up a boeing.

this is how they detected whatever is under the ocean. do you buy that, rob? >> no, not at all. you know, there's no scientific validity to these claims whatsoever. that's why you're seeing the authorities sort of distance themselves from it. and you know, to introduce this kind of thing in this emotionally charged environment that relatives are going through is nothing short of despicable. >> the families do know about this. david, this company also says they were able to detect these images underneath the water and we'll put those up for you again. by using satellites and aircraft and 20 different technologies including a nuclear reactor. possible, david? >> i'm not familiar -- you know, i'm not that familiar with the water portion of it or what they found. i have used similar technologies in my mining business to help me

locate best drilling areas and it's proved to work in that realm. as far as whether it can get through water, i'm not familiar with that or not. i do know the technology at least for locating gravel d deposits and other precious metals, we've done that before. the important thing is to not get ultrafocused on what we have got. everything deserves at least a look for validity, for confidence in whether it's real or not and for their credibility so i wouldn't discount it as quickly as rob might be doing but there's just two different ways to look at it. >> rob, why not check it out? what could it hurt? >> because it can't hurt anything except the people that believe in it. it's not helpful to relatives to give them false hope or to give them false leads. it's very important that any

information that comes to hand is checked for scientific val validi validity. you have seen scientists being careful all of the way through with how information is released. this sort of information released willy-nilly is just incredibly damaging to people who don't necessarily have scientific background to verify it themselves. if it's found to be false, the company that released it needs to be held to account. >> david, let's go back and let's talk about this radio chatter that the maliaysian authorities released so families could hear it. there's nothing on it that seems vaguely suspicious, is there? >> not from what we're hearing. we've listened to cockpit recordings in other accidents

i've been involved in and there is information you can get from them that you can't hear in this type of forum. you can listen to engine speeds and information about what's going on on the aircraft. you can determine speeds or at least approximate speeds with sounds of wind against the cockpit. there is more analysis that needs to be done to really say it can give us information or not. the good thing i saw about it is malaysia is taking information from the international community and saying you need to be more transparent and show us what's going on and tell at least the families what's going on and what you know so they can make conclusions for themselves. you can see in wayne's face there as he was talking, a little bit of relief that malaysians are finally communicating with the families a little bit better. >> absolutely. rob, a last question for you. the air search has been suspended. and the underwater search has widened. should we still be hopeful.

>> hopeful of finding the wreckage one day? >> right. >> yes, i think we should be. i put a great deal of stock in the data. that's being verified by all of the agencies that it's been sent to and provides us with our strongest lead now in terms of broadening out the search to scan the ocean floor and i think, yes, indeed, we'll find the wreckage in the future. >> david, ron, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. >> still to come in the "newsroom," racist remarks tied to nba owner donald sterling not just having an impact on his basketball team. they are also affecting the los angeles chapter of naacp which has long standing ties to sterling. now the organization is facing some tough questions of its own. let me get this straight... [ female voice ] yes?

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checking our top stories this morning, president obama's approval rating has fallen to a new low. according to a new "the washington post"/abc news poll, only 41% approve of how he's done his job and 52% disapprove. a suspect at a shooting has killed himself.

six were wounded and taken to a local hospital. one in critical condition. no word on a motive for the shooting. as first responders sift through piles of rubble today, a storm system continues to move across the united states. 75 million people are at risk. that's one-third of the country. so far storms have killed 29 people across six states. the racial controversy swirling around nba owner donald sterling has also put the spotlight on another organization. that would be the los angeles chapter of the naacp, which was poised to honor sterling with a lifetime achievement award, his second from the group in just a few weeks. the naacp says it is dropping that plan in light of the racist comments tied to sterling. at a news conference yesterday, here's how the chapter's president summed up the approach toward sterling going forward. >> at some point when there has been proof, think that would be

a legitimate time for the naacp to sit down mr. sterling and try to work out how and why he did what he did and what is he going to do in the future. god teaches us to forgive. and the way i look at it, after a sustained period of just proof to the african-american community that those words don't really reflect his heart, i think there's room for forgiveness. >> room for forgiveness. joining me now, cnn political commentator mark lamont hill and cnn commentator and cnn commentator l.z. what's your reaction to the naacp chapter saying it could forgive sterling one day? >> that dude needs to be fired. he needs to resign or he needs

to be fired. he sounds like a fool. i'm just going to come to you straight up. to even suggest that somehow a sitdown with donald sterling now when if anyone should have known about his racist past should have been a local chapter of naacp. first lawsuit was 2003. to pretend they'll sit down with him now and see if that's really in his heart when he's been sued by the department of justice, that man needs to resign or be fired. >> mark, do you agree? >> i do. it's baffling to me how committed he is to looking at donald sterling through this other lens. this isn't a momentary slipup where someone accidentally says the n word, an inappropriate mark. this is man with a history with racist acts in his every day life. this is a deep thing.

for him to suggest somehow we don't know what's in his heart, that's absurd to me. it makes me wonder if there's a connection between the naacp of l.a., not national chapter but local chapter, in terms of a financial connection. >> you talk about financial connections. tax records obtained by a citizen audit show that l.a. naacp chapter has received $45,000 from sterling. money it says it will now return, l.z. it will return the money. >> i believe the quote said it was an insignificant amount and they'll return it. if it's so insignificant, why did you take it from that racist to begin with? we all for the most part in our lives sell out. if you're a liberal joining an suv and you care about the environment, you're selling out. we don't want child labor laws to understand where they come from, we sell out. we sell out to a certain degree.

the naacp, the advancement of color people, there's nothing that has hurt african-americans in this country more than the inability to get proper housing and education. what donald sterling did interfered with advancement of both. not being able to get good housing and not in school districts where our children can be educated. how is that to be overlooked? they were bought off and that resign and then we can begin r talking about where we go from there as a local chapter. one more thing. i'm not letting the national chapter off the hook either. they want to characterize this as a local chapter. this is l.a. this is the second largest city in the country. this isn't some small town that did it on their own. they should have been aware of what the second largest chapter was doing. >> over the last three or four years, i've seen the naacp make a shift under leadership of ben jealous before he left back

toward advocacy and hardcore progressive issues something they abandoned for decades to building middle class ideals. to see naacp in a national level to move in a good direction and see this on a local level in a bad direction, i'm not letting them off the hook. there is a difference. i think that's what happened. >> so l.z., i suspect i know what you'll say but i will lay this on you anyway. the national naacp just announced it requested a meeting with the nba commissioner to discuss "the influence and impact of racism in the league." you have the local chapter of the naacp saying, you know, we're good christians. we need to forgive mr. sterling and work with him in the future. >> once again, this is not breaking news. we're just being reminded. i understand. i was given a lecture last night. i teach at northwestern

university. i was talking to my students about what was happening in 2003 and 2004 that prevented the media from taking hold of the story in the first place. we had the iraq war. we were reeling from 9/11. you can see why we were distracted. that doesn't give us an excuse to pretend this is breaking news to the public or naacp whose job it is to stay on top of things like this. i'm also looking at the national basketball players association, their professional organization. their union. their union should have been aware of this and every time those players were willing to sit out over their contracts and not bring up donald sterling, you're also culpable in that. as you can tell, i'm very heated by this. people pretend like this is breaking news when we let this pass for over a decade. >> you know what it is? we like sexy forms of racism. someone is on the phone talking to their girlfriend about not letting black people at the game. denying black people to housing

is far more damaging than the phone call he made. not being able to get access to quality public education is far more damaging. even the lawsuit is damaging of a pattern of denying people access to proper wages. we only run when racist stuff happens caught on tmz tapes. we should be upset. there are more systemic stuff we should be worried about. i challenge the jersey s to not just be put inside out but pull out of the games until nba makes a decision. >> doesn't that hurt the players? why should the players have to pay for these racist remarks? >> they're not paying for the racist remark. they are protesting these racist remarks. i heard someone actually compare turning jerseys inside out.

i wanted to strangle that person. there's no comparison between players turning their jersey inside out and millionaires turning it inside out in 2014 when the country supports them and what the two gentleman did in 1968. what those players did, whether put on black socks or making tweets like that's messed up, that's really, really weak. and the truth of the matter is if you were that upette set youd have said something as a union and making sure that adam silver did something swiftly but not playing. not just the clippers but the whole league. >> it works if the whole league doesn't play. if just clippers don't play, the only one that wins is golden state warriors. we have to take profit out of racism. >> actually, you don't need the whole league. you need one prominent player. let's say lebron james refuses to play. what affect would that have on the nba? >> here's the problem.

we get into disney narrative. lebron becomes a hero and he's a legend. that's awesome. we have taken no money out of owners' pockets. owners lose money when there's no game. miami heat will play without lebron james, they'll probably win in the second round against toronto or brooklyn. you need the whole league not to play so cable tv contracts don't have money and stands are empty and no one makes money. when owners don't make money when they care about green because you don't care about black, adam silver isn't the boss of the owners. he's going to do what they allow him to do. the only thing we have at our disposal as people who fight this protest is a general strike. then they have to get rid of him. >> mr. silver will come out at 2:00 p.m. eastern and deliver severe sanctions against mr. sterling. i don't know what that means either. what would be enough to prevent your suggested strike?

>> i would say for the short-term severe sanctions and then also have a long-term plan to begin removing him from leadership. i will say this. he's going to be very, very careful in how he punishes don sterling because we have other owners in this league who are on the record saying disparaging things about other groups. this sets a precedent that other owners will be leery of. we shouldn't let dan gilberts of the world blind us that these owners knew about donald sterling and worked with him any way and now they're embarrassed. first step needs to be sanctions on clippers and donald sterling but we need a long-term plan to remove him from the league either by removing all of his draft picks, stricter salary cap, somehow putting enough

pressure on him he's forced to sell the team to someone else. i don't think you'll see anything where he's automatically removed because that's a dangerous precedent for other owners. >> i don't want to live in a world where you get fired for what you believe or what you say in privacy of your own home. the difference with donald sterling is there's a connection between what he says at home and how he treats players and how he treats people and that's a bigger issue and argument is this is bad for business. owners have a right to say we don't want someone in our league bad for business compromising the brand. when sponsors pull out and when michael jordan says i got a problem with this. man, you know things are bad. >> you must be a racist. >> thanks so much. >> pleasure. >> still to come in the "newsroom," we'll talk about nasty weather rolling through the south and how millions may be at risk.

we'll have the latest on how to protect yourself. >> we're talking about 75 million today. even more people affected by the threat for severe weather through the afternoon. we'll have details coming up. dad. how i don't know.ere? (speaking in russian) look, look, look... you probably want to get away as much as we do. with priceline express deals, you can get a fabulous hotel without bidding. think of the rubles you'll save.

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people are combing through debris after violent storms ripped across the south. this is what it looks like this morning in athens, alabama. about 100 miles north of birmingham. in hard hit mississippi, eight people were killed. earlier today i talked with the mayor of tupelo about the storm's path of destruction. >> i don't know that the state has seen anything this widespread. three years ago almost to the day is the deadly tornado outbreak that had a line of destruction from mississippi to alabama. the storm system yesterday was literally about half of the

state of mississippi. >> it's not over yet. 75 million people could get hit by severe weather over the next few days. cnn's andrew peterson is live in new york to tell us more about that. good morning. >> good morning. it looks like we already have a tornado warning right now. we hear reports of three tornadoes in the region. right now is the anaheim to take cover. most interior section of that home. if you have a helmet, put it on to avoid head injuries. it's the head injury that can take most lives. let's look at what we mentioned. we're talking about 73 million people today under the gun for severe weather. where you see yellow or orange is a slight risk. that doesn't mean you don't have the threat for large tornado. that threat is there. it's just less than enhanced region which is around birmingham to north of mobile. 2.5 million in a similar region as yesterday looking for a threat of severe weather. we see is toward the afternoon when you get extra daylight in and it enhances threat for

thunderstorms. also looking at the tornado watch box again in through florida and also southern portions of georgia today. we have that warning in that region. why are we still talking about this? a huge low that's producing rain into the northeast today. this guy has parked itself. it's not moving. the reason that's so important is the system we're watching is blocking this guy from moving forward to the east. with that that same frontal boundary is stuck in place here. we keep getting all that moisture in from the gulf. we produce severe thunderstorms. that's the problem today. unfortunately as we go in through tomorrow, very slow moving system so we're still going to be talking about this for the overnight hours and then tomorrow. here's the severe weather threat. looking at that from d.c. back in through florida. we'll talk about that slight risk. what's so dangerous into the southeast is you have a lot of wooded areas in this region. you are already talking about heavy amounts of rain. a lot of times you are so rain wrapped systems that they move as fast as 60 miles an hour and you can't see them. you add in forested areas and

very difficult to see so definitely pay attention today. flooding concerns as well with heavy rain into the region. still looks like another 48 hours or so still to go, carol. >> all right. thanks so much. with the violent storm system so fast and fearsome, it's worth noting it's the smallest moments that hold such power. such is the case in this picture of resilience in the face of gut wrenching loss. according to the associated press, that's justin shaw on the left helping nick conway raise a flag at his arkansas home leveled by the tornado. our crew in tupelo saw a similar flag raising. that homeowner also refuses to concede defeat. let me get this straight... [ female voice ] yes? lactaid® is 100% real milk? right. real milk. but it won't cause me discomfort. exactly, no discomfort, because it's milk without the lactose. and it tastes? it's real milk! come on, would i lie about this?

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u.s. attorney general eric holder is joining representatives from britain and ukraine to help ukrainian government find and recover stolen assets. you remember the former ukrainian presidential palace was open to the public after the ukrainian president was ousted. it was filled with luxury gifts. the meeting is happening to make sure the spoils of corruption return to the ukrainian people. thank you for joining me today. i'm carol costello. "@ this hour" after a break. could wreckage of flight 370 have been found? an australian company says it has discovered what they think could be the commercial airliner wreckage in the bay of bengal. for the first time families of the passengers hear final words from the cockpit.

in just a few hours, the moment of truth for donald sterling. the nba holds a high stakes news conference to announce what it will do about the allegedly racist comments that shocked the world. this is a decision that could change the future of the league. 75 million americans under threat of severe weather as powerful storms cut a deadly path. the deep south now in the bull's eye. hello, everyone. i'm john berman. >> i'm michaela pereira. >> so is this the big breakthrough in the search for flight 370 or is it really just another wild goose chase? an australian marine exploration company says its team of scientists discovered signs of what they believe could be the wreckage of a commercial airliner. the thing is, it's in the bay of bengal about 100 miles off the cost of